16 Pinterest Ads Best Practices

Paid Media / October 01, 2020

This article was updated in August 2024

Why Advertise on Pinterest?

Pinterest is a one-of-a-kind social media platform. E-commerce retailers often rely on Facebook and Instagram to increase brand awareness, website traffic and sales. Pinterest, on the other hand, is often forgotten. 

Retailers are missing a great opportunity to advertise to a relevant audience on a social network known to inspire new purchases and increase brand awareness. 

If done right, a Pinterest ad campaign can be an amazing top-funnel initiative that ties into your overall digital marketing strategy. 

• According to eMarketer, 47% of U.S. social media users go to Pinterest to find and shop for products. In comparison, 15% used Facebook and 11% used Instagram. 
• Weekly Pinners are used to online shopping, they are 1.25x more likely to buy multiple items.
• 49% of weekly Pinners have a household income over 100K
• 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on Pins from brands

Ready to leverage the power of Pinterest in your digital marketing strategy? Follow these 16 best practices to achieve a successful Pinterest ad campaign: 

8 Creative Best Practices for Your Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a visual-focused social media, every post (called pins) presents a compelling image. Your ads should follow the same idea, it should even go one step further in order to stand out amongst the other pins. The following best practices will help you create strong virtual assets to set your brand apart and make your Pinterest Ad campaign a real success. 

1. Use Vertical Formats

Vertical pins are a great way to occupy maximum screen real estate to communicate your message. This best practice is even more effective on mobile devices since only a small number of pins show simultaneously. 

Pinterest recommends creating your pin with an aspect ratio of 2:3 or a bit taller: 600×900 pixels minimum, 600×1560 pixels maximum.

2. Be Straight to The Point

Your pin will typically stay on users’ screens for less than two seconds. It’s important that your creative asset communicates your message efficiently. 

We feel like this Crispy Minis ad checks all the points. It showcases a fun way for parents to use larger rice cases as snacks for their kids in one swift look. And, as Pinterest users are often looking for new ideas and inspiration, this ad fits right in. 

Furthermore, the call to action “Available now” suggests that it’s a new product they’ll be able to find on their next grocery run. 

3. Overlay Text To Images (but not too much!)

Text can really bring your images to life. Plus, it makes it easier for consumers to understand your message at a glance.

Although there is no 20% text rule, unlike Facebook and Instagram, we recommend keeping your text overlay at a minimum. 

In this example, Starbucks uses a clever copy “Welcome Home, Pumpkin” to announce the return of their infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

4. Use videos!

On that point, Pinterest is no different than other social media networks: videos work great! Video advertising has been popular for a few years now, but with the recent rise of short videos like Instagram Reels, TikTok Videos and YouTube Shorts, it’s undeniable that videos are at least worth a test. 

They promote your brand’s story in a fun and engaging way and capture users’ attention quickly. Keep your video short, and straight to the point and lead with a clear hook in the first few seconds. Make sure your video makes sense with sound off and insert your brand logo tastefully.

Home Depot’s video ad is a great example, their logo is visible at all times, it demonstrates how users can DIY (a very popular practice on Pinterest) their own shelves, the video is short and sweet and doesn’t require sound.

5. Incorporate Your Brand Logo

Adding your logo to your ad is a no-brainer. It’s an easy way to help your brand be recognizable and stay top of mind. 

Take a look at Indigo’s new home collection. Both the collection’s logo and the brand’s logo are clearly visible throughout the video.

6. Offer Valuable Content

It’s no secret that consumers browse Pinterest looking for how-tos and inspiration. 

Using your ads as a way to showcase how your product fits into your target market’s life is an amazing way to create a quick connection with users AND offer actionable tips. How-to pins, checklist pins, guides, and recipes are popular and engaging pins. 

This Swiffer ad offers tips to pet owners looking to treat their puppy. Valuable content paired with relevant targeting is a recipe for success!

7. Motivate Pinner To Take Action on Pins

Pinterest is no different than Facebook or Google on this point: a clear call to action always helps increase clicks and engagement. Encourage users to take a desired action such as downloading, shopping, signing up, registering, etc. 

Here’s an example of a clear call to action in the pin’s description. 

8. Customize Your Ad Copy Based on Queries

As mentioned above, users browse Pinterest looking for inspiration in different parts of their lives: home decor, style, cooking, travel, etc. If your ad copy resonates with this concept, you’ll increase your chances of capturing users’ attention and getting them interested in your product or service. 

Here’s a perfect example of what I mean, this TD Canada ad speaks directly to the user looking for a “new home checklist”. The copy “We like the wood cabinets for your new kitchen, too.” is quirky, fun and appealing to the user.

8 Paid Media Best Practices on Pinterest

Thoughtful creatives play a part in any Pinterest advertising campaign. But, there is a whole lot more to think about for a successful campaign: budget, objectives, targeting, placements and other factors will impact your campaign’s performance. 

Read the following campaign management tips to ensure your Pinterest campaign bring in the best results:

1. Test Out Various Ad Formats

When launching your advertising campaign on Pinterest, we recommend testing different ad formats if you can find the top-performing ones for your brand. 

Pinterest offers 5 ad formats: 

• Static pins
• Carousel
• Video
• Max Width Video
• Collection

In the example below, Old Navy took advantage of the carousel format to showcase different jean styles as well as different body types. Their creative is completely aligned with their ad description “Jeans For Every Body”.

2. Create Relevant Content

You should plan your advertising strategy around 3 different types of events: 

• Be present when Pinterest users are browsing the platforms on a regular basis
• Connect with Pinners around seasonal moments or key life moments like Holidays, Weddings, etc.
• Amplify specific events related to your brand such as product launches or time-sensitive offers.

3. Plan Ahead

Pinterest users tend to be planners. They look for seasonal inspiration months in advance. For example, searches for Holiday ideas can start as early as June! 

Brands advertising on Pinterest should launch their campaign one season ahead of the other social media platforms.

4. Keep Your Landing Page Relevant

This tip applies to every digital marketing advertising initiative: your landing page should always be aligned with your ad. Make sure your branding and your copy are coherent across the board to provide a seamless experience to your users. 

Holt Renfrew uses a similar design on their ad and their landing page, this way, the user knows he’ll easily find what he’s been looking for: the new Fall line. 

5. Use Pinterest Catalogs for Remarketing 

The Pinterest Catalog turns your product feeds into product pins, all at once. Product pins work great as remarketing and it’s a quick way to get your product on Pinterest. 

Pinterest even offers dynamic remarketing, making it easy to show products that past website visitors added to their cart for example. 

Pro tip: Pinterest recently launched Collections ads: a great way to showcase your entire collection in one Pin. 

6. Select The Most Relevant Campaign Objective

Just like you would find on Facebook or Instagram, Pinterest offers different campaign objectives to fit every brand’s needs. When creating your campaign, make sure your campaign objective is aligned with your goal. 

• Brand Awareness: Good option for introducing your pin to prospecting audiences and a great way to increase reach.
• Video Views: Can be used for video pins, although you might want to try the conversion objective if your video is more “sales-y”.  
• Traffic: Good way to drive your audience to your site. good for driving your audience to your site, and also good to use if there are not enough purchase conversion actions
• App Install: Choose this objective if you are looking to increase app installs.
• Conversions: Great way to generate conversions or leads. Keep in mind that you need, at least, 50 conversion actions per week. If your brand doesn’t generate enough conversions, try the traffic objective instead.
• Shopping Catalog: Good way to help people discover your products through Products Pins.

7. Use Automatic Bidding When Available

Pinterest can automatically manage bids (the maximum amount you want to pay for a click or engagement) for you with automatic bidding. When available, our campaign managers suggest choosing automatic bidding to get the lowest possible cost per result while also spending your entire budget.

8. Separate Interest Targeting and Keyword Targeting Whenever Possible

On Pinterest, you can target users based on interest and keywords. If you can, create different campaigns for interest targeting and keyword targeting to test what works best for your brand. 

Start Working On Your Next Pinterest Campaign!

Hopefully, these best practices will help your brand launch high-performing Pinterest ads. If you need in-depth information about paid social, contact our digital marketing agency here. 

*The ads shown in this article are simply used as examples of best practices. They aren’t associated with Bloom in any way, shape or form.